Poker and Peaches
by YouStarteldTheSister
Summary: For the last three years Ellis has been getting daily unexplained visits from Nick. At first it's just an agreement between the two. A friendship that could fall apart at any minute, but soon enough those little visits turn into something more.


_Well here's another little fic for you guys. I plan on adding more chapters to this one sometime soon. Hopefully this one won't take as long as my other so-far-unreleased pieces of work. Maybe this will keep me from being so braindead.. anyway.. enjoy_ ^^''

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Ellis never locked his door. His friends often asked him why but they were always met with the same answer, he had someone waiting on him. Nick always chose to wait until he had left for work to enter the house, then lay on the couch and drink his beer until Ellis came home. They played poker sometimes for money sometimes not, they sat and talked until the late hours of the night, and sometimes they just sat and drank beer together enjoying each other's company and enjoying the silence. It was a unspoken alliance a fragile relationship that Ellis didn't dare question. He feared that if he did that little string holding the two of them together would snap and the con man would disappear, out of his life just as quickly as he had been thrown into it.

He wasn't really sure when it happened, after the infection Savannah was rebuilt and Ellis moved back into his house. He got all new furniture and eventually rebuilt his life after it had suddenly come to a halt during the apocalypse. Then one day out of the blue he came home to find his lock busted and Nick sprawled out on his couch, two empty beer bottles knocked over on the floor and a third in his hand. He didn't say anything and neither did Ellis they just stared at each other for what seems liked forever then Nick got up and gave Ellis one of his crooked smiles before walking out, taking the beer with him. The lock was replaced only to be broken again two days later when Nick was found in the same position as last time. The only difference was instead of getting up and leaving he just sat up instead setting the beer down on the coffee table and taking a worn out deck of cards from his pocket. "Hey sport, wanna play some cards?."

Eventually the locks stopped getting replaced, the fridge was stocked with extra beer, and two years passed by in the blink of eye. The visits became a daily thing slowly getting longer every time the older man showed up. There were some times Nick even passed out on his spot on the couch and Ellis just covered him up with a fuzzy blanket the hick knew he'd grown fond of. Getting up in the morning only to find more beer gone and the blanket left in a messy lump in the middle of his couch. But he never complained, just folded the blanket and put it away until he needed it again. Sometimes it was month, sometimes days, but it always happened again and every time it did something deep in Ellis wished he'd wake up to find Nick still laying there. He'd thought about asking Nick to move in with him, but there was that fear holding him back, he didn't know why Nick was here or why he showed up like this every day. If he asked Nick might go away and then Ellis would be alone in the house again, and he definitely didn't wan't that.

Another year passed and Nick kept on coming, never missing a day and never staying longer then he wanted to. Ellis figured even when he stayed the night he was up before the sun rose to sneak out without waking him up and go back out into the world, off to do whatever it was a man like him did while boys like Ellis worked in a garage or whatever making sure things were done right and working hard so he'd come home with enough money to keep the bills paid and food in the fridge. Sometimes that food was no more then a few cases of beer and a case of ramen noodles but it was food and Ellis could eat it. Nick even tried it a few times, but it was too cheap for his taste and there had been times Ellis had caught him trying to choke it down instead of just getting up and going to a restuarant instead. Just another question that floated around in Ellis' mind, begging to be asked but blocked by that wall of fear that was held together by the wordless agreement between the two of them.

On the day of his twenty-sixth birthday his friends gave Ellis the day off, which meant he slept in late, waking up sometime around noon. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes and stumbling into the kitchen the aging hick was met with the sound of clinking and curses. Blinking his way out of blurry vision, the first thing Ellis saw was Nick rooting through his fridge. Two beer bottles hanging by their neck in one hand and the other still digging in the fridge. The curses came from Nick's mouth when he couldn't seem to find what he was looking for and straightened up.

Ellis thought it was a little early to be drinking already and wondered to himself if Nick hadn't known he'd had the day off and had come because he thought Ellis was at work. Which was good in a way, because it meant Ellis had finally caught him in the act walked right in on Nick stocking up on beer so he could do whatever it was he did before or after he laid out on his couch like a lazy slob to drink it all. But Nick looked at him, and instead of walking away he just closed the fridge door and handed him one of the beers he was holding giving Ellis another one of those crooked smiles "happy birthday sport."


End file.
